Faculty Publications
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Item Exploring the fungal protein cadre in the biosynthesis of PbSe quantum dots(Elsevier B.V., 2017) Jacob, J.M.; Sharma, S.; Mohan Balakrishnan, R.M.While a large number of microbial sources have recently emerged as potent sources for biosynthesis of chalcogenide quantum dots (QDs), studies regarding their biomimetic strategies that initiate QD biosynthesis are scarce. The present study describes several mechanistic aspects of PbSe QD biosynthesis using marine Aspergillus terreus. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) studies indicated distinctive morphological features such as abrasion and agglomeration on the fungal biomass after the biosynthesis reaction. Further, the biomass subsequent to the heavy metal/metalloid precursor was characterized with spectral signatures typical to primary and secondary stress factors such as thiol compounds and oxalic acid using Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopic (FTIR) analysis. An increase in the total protein content in the reaction mixture after biosynthesis was another noteworthy observation. Further, metal-phytochelatins were identified as the prominent metal-ion trafficking components in the reaction mixture using Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectroscopic analysis (LCMS). Subsequent assays confirmed the involvement of metal binding peptides namely metallothioneins and other anti-oxidant enzymes that might have played a prominent role in the microbial metal detoxification system for the biosynthesis of PbSe QDs. Based on these findings a possible mechanism for the biosynthesis of PbSe QDs by marine A. terreus has been elucidated. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.Item Enhanced thermoelectric performance of bulk tin telluride: Synergistic effect of calcium and indium co-doping(Elsevier Ltd, 2018) Bhat, D.K.; Shenoy, S.SnTe based materials are considered recently as a lead-free replacement of the well-known PbTe based thermoelectric (TE) materials in addressing the energy crisis worldwide. Herein we report both experimental and theoretical study on the effect of co-doping of calcium and indium on electronic structure and TE properties of SnTe. We show that the resonant levels introduced by indium and band gap opening caused by calcium, valence band convergence induced by both calcium and indium, synergistically increases the Seebeck coefficient for a wide range of temperatures. The co-doped SnTe with a high ZT of ?1.65 at 840 K and record high power factor of ?47 ?Wcm?1K?2 for SnTe based materials make it a promising material for TE applications. © 2018 Elsevier LtdItem Electronic structure engineering of tin telluride through co-doping of bismuth and indium for high performance thermoelectrics: A synergistic effect leading to a record high room temperature ZT in tin telluride(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2019) Shenoy, U.S.; Bhat, D.K.The ever increasing demand for alternative clean energy sources has led to intense research towards the optimization of thermoelectric performance of known systems. In this work, we engineer the electronic structure of SnTe by co-doping it with Bi and In. The co-doping not only results in the formation of two different resonance states and a reduced valence band offset, as in the case of previously reported co-doped SnTe, but also leads to opening of the band gap, which otherwise was closed in the case of Bi and In doped SnTe configurations, leading to suppression of bipolar diffusion. The synergistic action of all these effects leads to an increased Seebeck co-efficient throughout the temperature range and a ZTmax of ?1.32 at 840 K. This strategy of co-doping two different resonant dopants resulted in a record high room temperature ZT of ?0.25 at 300 K for SnTe based materials. This work suggests that appropriate combination of dopants to engineer the electronic structure of a material can lead to unpredictable results. © 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry.Item Evaluation of semiconducting p-type tin sulfide thin films for photodetector applications(Academic Press, 2019) Barman, B.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.Tin sulfide (SnS) is an important semiconductor as it is one of the less common p-type materials with a bandgap of 1.53 eV which makes it an attractive material for photo detector application. In the thin film form, it is a sensitive photo conductor with attractive opto-electronic characteristics. In the current report, tin sulfide thin films have been deposited by thermal evaporation in vacuum and the influence of substrate temperature on its compositional, morphological, structural, and opto-electrical properties was studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study shows that all the thermally deposited films are having an orthorhombic crystal structure along (111) plane as pre-dominant orientation and are polycrystalline in nature. Raman analysis verify the occurrence of SnS and Sn2S3 phases in the films. Surface morphology along with the elemental composition of the films was determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in combination with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). All the films were found to be homogeneous, uniform, pin-hole free and have high optical transmittance in the UV–Vis wavelength region. The optical bandgap energy of the films was calculated using Tauc's relation and it was found to be decreasing (1.576 eV–1.429 eV) with increasing substrate temperature. The activation energy of the SnS thin films was calculated from Arrhenius plot and it was also found to be decreasing with increasing substrate temperature. The opto-electrical parameters such as photo conductivity (?L), dark conductivity (?D), response time (?r), recovery time (?d), photoresponsivity (R), and photosensitivity (S) were calculated and was found best for the films grown at 323 K. © 2019 Elsevier LtdItem Zn: a versatile resonant dopant for SnTe thermoelectrics(Elsevier Ltd, 2019) Bhat, D.K.; Shenoy, U.S.SnTe-based materials have been receiving increasing heed in the field of thermoelectrics (TEs) because of their tunable electronic structure. Until now, only In and Bi are reported to introduce resonance level in SnTe. In this work, for the very first time, we report Zn as a resonant dopant in SnTe using first-principles density functional theory calculations. We show that the resonant states introduced by Zn raises the heavy hole valence sub-band above light hole valence sub-band leading to both record high room temperature Seebeck coefficient (~127 ?VK?1 at 300 K) and figure of merit, ZT (~0.28 at 300 K) for SnTe-based materials. The transport properties calculated using Boltzmann transport equations predicts Zn-doped SnTe to be a promising TE material, further confirmed by experimental ZTmaximum of ~1.49 at 840 K and ZTaverage of ~0.78 with 300 K and 840 K as cold and hot ends, respectively. © 2019 Elsevier LtdItem Bi and Zn co-doped SnTe thermoelectrics: Interplay of resonance levels and heavy hole band dominance leading to enhanced performance and a record high room temperature: ZT(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2020) Shenoy, U.S.; Bhat, D.K.Lead free SnTe with a tunable electronic structure has become the front runner in eco-friendly thermoelectrics. Herein, we show through first-principles density functional theory calculations that Bi and Zn doping introduces a resonance level in SnTe. The dominance of the heavy hole valence band at room temperature in Bi-Zn co-doped SnTe leads to a record high room temperature ZT of ?0.3 (at 300 K) for SnTe based materials. The increase in the Seebeck coefficient value due to the interaction between the resonance states and formation of the nanoprecipitates leading to an appreciably low lattice thermal conductivity of 0.68 W m-1 K-1 results in a peak ZT of ?1.6 at 840 K. A record high ZTaverage of ?0.86 with 300 K and 840 K as cold and hot ends, respectively, makes Bi-Zn co-doped SnTe a potential material for thermoelectric applications. This strategy of using two resonant dopants, to not only improve the room temperature ZT but also high temperature values, can very well be extended to other systems. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.Item ZnxSn1-xS thin films: A study on its tunable opto-electrical properties for application towards a high efficient photodetector(Elsevier Ltd, 2020) Barman, B.; Bangera, K.V.; Shivakumar, G.K.Zinc sulfide (ZnS) and tin sulfide (SnS) are crucial semiconductors with potential use in various opto-electronic applications. By incorporating ZnS and SnS to form ZnxSn1-xS thin film, one can expect exceptional opto-electrical properties due to their large band gap dissimilarity. Herein, thin films of ZnxSn1-xS (0.0 ? x ? 1.0) were successfully deposited on glass substrates using a thermal evaporation method for the first time and its various properties were analyzed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the polycrystalline behavior of ZnxSn1-xS films with a preferred orientation along the (1 1 1) plane. The absence of any secondary peaks along with the shift in the (1 1 1) peak position to lower 2? values with increasing Zn concentration confirmed the formation of a solid solution. SEM analysis depicted the presence of uniform and homogeneous films. The formation of nearly stoichiometric ZnxSn1-xS films was verified using an energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The electrical and optical properties of the films were estimated from the two-probe method and UV–Vis spectroscopy, respectively. The energy band gap values decreased from 3.49 eV to 1.54 eV as the composition of the ZnxSn1-xS films was varied. The various opto-electrical parameters were investigated and the photosensitivity was found highest at 43.38 for the Zn0.10Sn0.90S films. The observed tunable opto-electrical properties of the ZnxSn1-xS films suggests that the films can be utilized for a wide range of opto-electronic applications. © 2020 International Solar Energy SocietyItem SnTe thermoelectrics: Dual step approach for enhanced performance(Elsevier Ltd, 2020) Bhat, D.K.; Shenoy, U.S.Doping of SnTe to achieve desirable properties has been a wide spread approach in the recent past to enhance its thermoelectric performance. Herein, we apply a dual approach: Pb doping for reduction of thermal conductivity and Zn doping for improving the power factor. The theoretical prediction of enhanced Seebeck due to increase in the band gap, introduction of the resonance levels by Zn and dominance of the heavy hole valence band, is realized experimentally as improved power factor throughout the temperature range. The accompanying reduction in the thermal conductivity by co-doping Pb and Zn leads to a record high room temperature figure of merit, ZT of 0.35 (@ 300K) and ZT of 1.66 at 840 K. The ZTaverage of ?0.9 with 300 K as cold end and 840 K as hot end sets a new record for SnTe based materials. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.Item Complementary effect of co-doping aliovalent elements Bi and Sb in self-compensated SnTe-based thermoelectric materials(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2021) Kihoi, S.K.; Shenoy, U.S.; Bhat, D.K.; Lee, H.S.Research on Pb-free thermoelectric materials as a potential eco-friendly and solid-state source of energy has continuously advanced over time, with SnTe-based materials having shown utmost promising properties owing to their tunable electronic structure and scalable thermal conductivity. In this study, we self-compensate Sn to reduce inherent Sn vacancies, and further tune the carrier concentration by doping with Bi. Sb is further alloyed to incorporate nanostructures that significantly reduce the thermal conductivity. Multiple aliovalent dopants result in a continually decreased carrier concentration and subsequent significantly decreased electrical conductivity. The Seebeck values are seen to increase with temperature, where a maximum value of ?171 ?V K?1is reported with a maximum power factor of ?22.7 ?W cm?1K?2. We show through first principles DFT calculations the synergistic effect of Bi and Sb to introduce resonance states and an additional valence band convergence effect with increasing Sb that contribute to improved electronic properties. A decreased phonon frequency with co-doping is also reported. A maximumZTof ?0.8 at 823 K is reported in the Sn0.90Bi0.03Sb0.10Te composition, showing good potential in Sb co-doped SnTe-based materials. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021.Item Electronic structure modulation of Pb0.6Sn0.4Te via zinc doping and its effect on the thermoelectric properties(Elsevier Ltd, 2021) Shenoy, U.S.; Bhat, D.K.Striking a balance between the high performance and detrimental environmental toxicity of PbTe materials in thermoelectrics (TE) has become a necessity in the current situation. In this context, improving the performance of materials with lower lead content to the level of PbTe is crucial. Herein, we engineer the electronic structure of Pb0.6Sn0.4Te, a well-known TCI but a poor TE material by doping Zn. The first principles calculation reveal that Zn doping introduces multiple electronic valleys while simultaneously opening the band gap of Pb0.6Sn0.4Te. Higher power factor with lower thermal conductivity is predicted by the transport property calculations in the doped material. The resonance level introduced along with features of hyper-convergence of the valence bands leads to improved Seebeck co-efficient throughout the studied temperature range. An experimental figure of merit, ZT of ~1.57 at 840 K promises us a TE material applicable for a broad temperature range for future energy applications. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.
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